An Accra Fast Track High Court, presided over by Justice Edward Amoako-Asante, has ordered the over a 100 withdrawn Pentecost University students to join the Court action challenging their purported dismissal.

This was after Counsel for the affected students had drawn the attention of the Court to a letter under the authorship of Gibson Annor-Antwi, Registrar, dated 7 January, 2013, purporting to re-admit all the other affected students without any Court order to that effect.

Some 10 students had successfully secured an interlocutory injunction from the court stopping the university from dismissing them and further orders that extra classes should be organized for them to take their missed semester exams.

And upon the court action, the university wrote a letter purporting to re-admit all other students the university dismissed.

Moving the Motion for the Joinder of 10 additional students, Gary Nimako-Marfo, Lead Counsel, said this expansive, unilateral interpretation of the Court’s earlier order by the Pentecost University was improper and irregular.

Counsel for the University and the Principal State Attorney did not oppose both the Joinder Application or the queries raised about the purported re-admission letter.

In his ruling therefore, Justice Edward Asante, granted the Joinder application for the 10 additional students to be added to the action.

The Judge made a further Order that unless and until all the affected students are joined to the action, they could not, in fact and in law, take any benefit from the earlier injunction granted on 20 December, 2012, recalling the ten applicants and asking the University to conduct special classes for them to enable them write their first Semester Exams.

The Court noted that any student who did not apply to join was doing so at their own peril since the letter from the Registrar of the University was of no effect and only twenty students were properly before the Court.

On the 28 of May last year, the Pentecost University College, under the direction of the National Accreditation Board, withdrew over a hundred first year students on the grounds that there were certain alleged defects in their admission entry requirements.

However, the University did not indicate the nature of the said defects. The NAB also did not give the students a hearing and also made the decision to withdraw the students retrospectively.

Ten students commenced an initial action at the Fast Track High Court (Human Rights Division) seeking to enforce their fundamental Right to Education as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.

The students are represented by Gary Nimako-Marfo and Papa Kow Acquaye whilst Mr. J.A. Larkai represented the Pentecost University with Mrs. Grace Ewool, Principal State Attorney, represented the Attorney-General, the National Accreditation Board and the Ministry of Education.

The substantive case has been scheduled for Tuesday, 5 February, 2013.